The Curious Case of the Christmas Beers.
Posted on December 1st, 2009 by jackc
In the just-out issue of Ale Street News, I did a Christmas piece bearing the above title which recounts how The Most Famous Detective of All Time and his almost equally-famed sidekick share their annual Christmas Eve beers, a story untold before now.
I urge you so seek out a copy of the issue but my story can also be read at the ASN website if you fail at finding a dead tree copy.
Not online is the illustration my pal Rob Davis created to accompany the story so I’ll provide that here.
Can you figure out what that book is that they’re looking at? I’ll give you a clue: the beer and goblet on the left hand page (pg. 56 in real life) are reversed from the actual photograph.
For those out there with a taste for details, that background behind Holmes and Watson is based loosely on sitting room of Holmes and Watson’s flat as reproduced in the Holmes museum in London on, yes, Baker Street. Some details of the mantle are missing- such as the famous persian slipper…
Now, the reason that photo is reversed in the book in Sherlock’s hand is that I didn’t have a good copy of the actual photo and used one that I found on the web, which has a different glass and is reversed from the book Jack is having everyone guess at. The text is also a different layout from the actual book’s entry, as I think I used one of Jack’s e-mails about this assignment as it would be far too small to read in any case.
Michael Jackson’s “Ultimate Beer”–right? I can’t locate my copy to double-check…………
That’s Strike One…
Is it Don’s book?
You will have to be more specific.
Another difference in the final piece which was printed is that I had Rob advance the clock on the mantle a bit to nearly 9pm to be in tune with the story itself. The one above is the final “check this” version he sent me before sending it on to Tony Forder.
Apparently I did not send you that final piece. I’ve remedied that via e-mail.
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